Sunday, October 02, 2005

                WAYNESVILLE, N.C. (Oct. 2, 2005) - Firing the best two-round team score in ETSU women's golf history, the Lady Buccaneers wrapped up a record-setting day in the Great Smokies Intercollegiate with a second-place finish Sunday at the Waynesville Country Club. It took another historic effort by host Western Carolina on its home course to keep the Lady Bucs from the tournament title.

            ETSU finished with a program record single-round score of 1-under-par 287 on Sunday, and finished the tournament at 581, five strokes back of Western Carolina on the team leaderboard, but ahead of 22 other teams that participated in the tournament. In the individual competition, it was Western Carolina's Ashley Hovda who fired a remarkable 10-under 134 to take the win and power the Lady Catamounts to the team victory. ETSU was led by senior Ashley Barton (Seffner, Fla.), who posted a career-best, two-round score of 134 to finish the tournament tied for third place at 3-under. Barton's two-round effort came after firing a personal best for single-round score with a 69 in Saturday's first round.

            Along with Barton, two other Lady Bucs put together career bests for single and two-round scores during the event. Those players included Cindy Phillips (Johnson City, Tenn.) with a 74-71=145 and Natalia Giraldo (Cali, Colombia) with a 73-70=143. In addition, freshman Lucy Gould (Bargoed, Wales) joined the group of Lady Bucs to post single-round bests on Sunday, as Phillips' 71, Giraldo's 70 and Gould's 74 were all new marks for each player.

            "I'm extremely pleased with the way we played," said ETSU women's golf coach Stefanie Reynolds, who in her fourth season has seen several Lady Buc program records erased and rewritten. "Western's No. 1 player had to shoot 6-under today to beat us, and that was on their home course. Even without the win, I think this is our best tournament performance ever for our program."

            The Lady Bucs will enjoy a three-week break before returning to action Oct. 21 at the Lady Pirate Fall Intercollegiate hosted by East Carolina in Greenville, N.C. Follow all the latest on the ETSU women's golf team by visiting ETSUBucs.com